Читать книгу Living in Love and Faith - Bishops of the Church of England - Страница 44

Sex is an activity between people who are both (or should both be) agents. It is an activity between people who are both subjects as well as objects. Being an ‘object’ of sexual desire certainly matters. That is, it matters to most people that others can desire them and be aroused by them. But being a subject matters too: people are not simply desired but desiring, not simply arousing but aroused. Sex involves not just the entangling of bodies, but the entangling of subjectivities. That is, in a healthy sexual relationship, each partner needs to have a sense of what the other wants and needs; the feelings, pleasure and excitement of each partner will be dependent on those of the other. We speak of ‘objectification’ when this is absent – when the subjectivity is all on one side, the objectivity all on the other. In a situation of objectification, the only desire that matters to me in a sexual encounter is my desire – and the only question to be asked of the other person is whether they match my desire. The other person becomes a commodity, used for my gratification.